Job Title: Samira’s Journal: Tale of the Spirit Experimentation FailureRank: APlayer Requirements: Samira Nassar + 1 B rank or higherJob Requirements: 15,000 wordsJob Location: Spooky ForestJob Description:With certain events concluded Samira has been able to return to normal life while also continuing her search for clues as to the missing spirit Anhur’s whereabouts. It appeared all leads led to dead ends until one day she receives intel from a researcher that was close to her grandfather. He tells her where she might find some more clues; a hidden research facility that had been thought to be abandoned, but still had some documents that were never removed. It turns out the facility is not abandoned and is in fact in the middle of a crisis that puts any who go inside in danger. Too bad she’s got to go inside anyway if she wants that information.

Enemies:

Weak: Crazed ResearchersMen and woman spread throughout the research facility that have lost their sanity. There is no recovery for them and the majority of them will be hostile.

Normal: Celestial SerpentsSerpents that reign from the darkest parts of the celestial world. As a result of the experiment gone wrong, the facility is covered with them and they have no intentions on returning to their world. Each one contains magical properties and powers that make them more difficult to deal with than serpents of the normal world.

Strong: Failed Spirit ExperimentsPast failures from other experiments. They have been set loose from the chaos and are quite hostile, knowing nothing about morals or communication since they are merely creations that have been locked up. They have no true solid form and often appear as nothing more than a lightly glowing fog. Difficult to attack by normal means, but light magic is their weakness.

Boss: Spirit ClonesExperiments that are on the border of failure and success. They are created copies of Samira’s spirits, but are impossible to control. These spirits have no master and do as they please. They have the same abilities as Samira’s as well as additional ones that have been given to them during creation. Each one that gets in the way must be defeated before the team can enter the main office that has the information they seek.

Reward:

-1x A Rank Spell Slot-10k Jewels For Each Boss Rolled (cap 5)-Coordinates for the location of the next job in the series

Somewhere On Earthland:

A group of men and women dressed in business suits and labcoats sat in chairs spread around a large rectangle shaped table that took up the majority of the room. On one of the walls were several screens displaying different points of the town of Hargeon. None of the units used to capture the images showed on screen were within the town itself, but were rather set outside of town. There had been complications with getting anyone on the inside due to the rumors and intell of certain mages that tended to stay within the town, particularly those that aligned themselves with the guild Lamia Scale. The leaders of the current meeting were cautious and did not want to be over confident and assume their forces could infiltrate without being found out. That led to them using advanced technology from Mirai rather than the simple lacrima magic tech that had been growing in Earthland. They had noticed the Arc of Destiny had been missing for quite some time, but unfortunately the target they preferred to watch kept leaving the country time and time again since its absence. The screen flickered so all screens combined into a larger video of a certain green haired celestial summoner. She was currently leaving the guild hall with some other local guild members and heading further into town, possibly helping on a small job that was posted on the board.

Woman One: "So, she has not changed locations for over a month?"

Man One: "She has remained in town since her return from Minstrel, aside from that one anomaly where she disappeared entirely for a few days. We are still not sure what that was about."

Woman One: "That does not matter. This just means those friends, assuming that is what they could be called, are no longer dragging her around across the world. I have had enough of their interference."

Man Two: "Hm, their problems being pushed onto our agenda has been a setback, but it did do some good. Samira's power levels have increased faster than we anticipated because of it."

Woman One: "Where is she on locating the missing spirit?"

Woman Two: "No where, ma'am. It seems there has been no progress on that. I think she is out of leads to follow."

Woman One: The lady that seemed to be in charge and running the meeting sighed. "We are going to have to risk going in then. It is clear we will have to leave some sort of clue for her."

Man One: "You intend to give her the theorized location?"

Woman One: "Heavens no. I intend to send her where she can get the coordinates for herself, as well as prove just how strong she has gotten. We have not been able to gather that kind of information since that day she fought that woman from Midi. Surely she has obtained more power since then."

It had been approximately two months since locating Kaori and the Arc of Destiny. Unfortunately, the power used by the transportation amulet had cut the meeting shorter than she had intened. She wasn't even sure of Kaori's complete reaction to her words. The other woman seemed to go into zombie mode during her outburst, but Samira had no guilt for her actions. Kaori seemed to have a better state of mind and she needed to hear some form of scolding. Everyone else was either too afraid, too respectful, or just followed her due to being a leader. Samira herself seemed to be the only one to ever show any signs of disapproval and let her know about it.

During those months, Samira once again returned to normal life as she usually did whenever anything Kaori related was missing from town. Her life was rather uneventful without her and those that followed her. While she was worried about some of the others connected to team Kaori such as Ikuchi and Ashley, she did not look for them. Her part of the plan was over, and she did not feel it appropriate to be getting into their business unless requested, and that was assuming she could even locate them in the first place. Samira's place was with the guild for now, and during those months she got to know more of the members of Lamia Scale and even helped on a few jobs. Life was back to normal.

Samira entered her room within the guild hall after spending some time with some other members and upon closing her door she felt a heated glare pierce her back. She cringed, knowing full well it was the same being that had been bothering her everyday for two weeks. "I don't think playing around with other humans is part of my contract," a black cat that sat comfortably on her bed said. The cat ears twitched in annoyance and her eyes narrowed into thin slits as the summoner turned around with a sheepish smile. "Neither is acting innocent."

With a sigh Samira tossed her bag in such a way that it gently hit the ground against the wall. "I understand. I am behind on fulfilling my end of our contract, however, there are no leads to go on. You do not know anything, so how am I supposed to know? Am I supposed to be psychic?"

"You are the granddaughter of a great researcher in the field of magical artifacts as well as celestial spirits of our kind. Surely you can find the knowledge he did just as easily."

"If he knew the location of Anhur, do you not think he would have already gone there before he died? Also, his research journals mentioned nothing regarding it. I have nothing to go on anymore." Samira passed her desk while heading towards the bathroom, but stopped and retraced her steps when something caught her eye. A letter of some sort. She lifted it and turned it over to see "For Samira Nassar" written on it. "What is this?" Samira inquired with a blink of her eyes and then begun to tear an opening in the envelope.

"Oh, some guild member slid it under the door. I assume the mailman gave it to him to deliver in his stead. You really should apologize for Chaac tossing him around already. That happened a long time ago."

Samira barely listened to Mau, aka the spirit Bastet, as she read the letter that was in within the envelope. Her eyes widened slightly and she let out a small surprised gasp. It caught the attention of Mau but the feline said nothing as she continued sitting there in a Diva nose high in air pose. "It is from Professor Maxwell. I have not seen or heard from him since my grandfather was alive. He says he has some important information for me, although I do not understand what it could be. I barely knew the man."

"He was an associate of your grandfather, right? Maybe he will know things that were not written in the notes. You should go see him. Even if it is not about my contract the information may still be important. When do you go?"

Samira lifted the letter once more and skimmed it to get to that detail. "Later this evening. At..." Samira's face went blank as she stared at the destination for their talk. "Hibiscus." Honestly, a better place could not have been picked? The place was decent enough, but she really did not want to show up at a location that was connected to Kaori. At least, not until she returned. "Better get going then." A sigh of hopelessness as she prepared to leave her room once more.

Evening:

Around dinnertime Samira had left the halls of the guild and made her way to the restaurant known as Hibiscus. She was hesitant but it was too late to change locations, especially when she wasn't even the one that had picked it in the first place. Contact information for the professor wasn't exactly written down in the letter either. The summoner did not wear her normal attire since that was slightly too casual for the meeting. The last time she had seen the man she had been forced to dress up as fancy little girls should be. Her shorts, long boots, and casual top were not going to cut it if she went by experience, and she didn't want to offend the man when she needed whatever information he had. She instead wore a blue colored dress that didn't look overly fancy and also didn't appear to be too casual.

Upon reaching the entrance she instantly saw the person she was to meet standing outside waiting. Professor Foxwell's scowl turned into a more cheerful expression as Samira approached, recognizing who she was instantly even though he had not seen her in over ten years. "Little Samira! For a moment I thought I was looking at your mother!" The elderly man placed his hands on her shoulders as he grinned from ear to ear. He appeared friendly enough, although as he pushed her inside the restaurant she had to add forceful to the description. She didn't even have time to get out more than a smile in reply before she felt his hand on her back and was guiding her inside. Foxwell was a researcher that had quite a bit of jewels to spare and as such he had a servant of his get a table reserved for them. Although the journey to it had been done rather quickly, it was rather smooth going and Samira still had trouble figuring out how she managed to get from point A to Point B. Nevertheless, she was in her seat with Foxwell across from her at their table. "I assume you are wondering why I picked this place to meet. It's rather unique and I have had colleagues tell me about it. This meeting knocks off two items on my two do list in one go. I do enjoy time efficiency."

Samira just smiled and tilted her head, wondering if she should even mention knowing the one that had turned the place into what it currently was. Best to go with no to avoid any unnecessary inquiries. "No, no. I was not wondering. It is nice. I am mainly concerned on what information you have for me. It has been ten years, and I am unsure as to why you seek me out. My grandfather died so there should be no reason."

Foxwell's brow arched as Samira spoke, but nodded in understanding. "To business then. A trait you inherited from him, I see." The man leaned over the table and spoke in a soft tone. "He may be dead but his research continues. You received that chest with his notes and some keys, correct?" Upon seeing Samira's surprised face he confirmed the answer for himself and nodded once more. "It was no coincidence that came to you when it did. Your little mistake of making contracts with your first four spirits has been known for years. I kept out if it thinking that you would be left alone, but things have changed. There are those that seek your keys and their power. Before you ask what I know and how, it is because of this." Foxwell straightened up and snapped his fingers, signaling for the servant that stood nearby to come over. The servant did, carrying a briefcase that he placed on the table and opened before walking away. Foxwell grabbed the documents inside and slid them over towards the summoner. "These were delivered to me a week ago. According to the delivery information it was sent from your grandfather. I assume he designed it in such a way that it would be delivered to me at a certain date regardless of his status." Foxwell slid a few of the papers away from the pile and pointed to one certain page. "This page here speaks of a research facility that was owned by him and some fellow colleagues. I do not know all the details about the research being conducted but it did have to do with spirits, and I do know it was shut down and abandoned sometime later. If you desire more information about your grandfather or what role your spirits have to play in all of this then I advise you go there."

Samira's gaze went down as she looked at the papers and skimmed over them. "I wonder, there is one spirit that was lost some time ago, but I have been unable to locate it even with another spirit that is closely linked with him. Do you think information regarding his location is there?"

Foxwell leaned back into his chair and gave a nod. "If you speak of Anhur I am certain of it. Your grandfather was obsessed with finding that key for a long time, and then suddenly he just stopped speaking of it altogether. I assume he found the location but was unable to go through with obtaining the key for whatever reason."

The green colored eyes of Samira lit up as she grinned, ecstatic that she found a new lead to fulfill one of her contracts. "Thank you, Professor Foxwell!" She then took the documents from the table and ran off towards the exit with the man raising his hand as if asking her to wait. It was too late though and he could only sweatdrop as she made her complete exit. She had apparently forgotten to actually enjoy herself and catch up before making her getaway. Oh, well. His mission was completed. With another snap of his fingers the servant returned, this time with an iLac. The contact was already on the other line waiting. "This is Foxwell. Yes, she has the location to the facility. The plan has been set in motion. Hm? I assume she would be going alone. She brought no one with her, and she left before I could ask about any other acquaintances of hers. Right away." The connection was cut off and Foxwell stood from his seat. "We're done here. Lets go." Foxwell then made his exit with his servant following. They didn't exactly order anything but he left a generous sum of money on the table regardless due to them taking up seats that could have been better spent on guests that wanted to be there.

Unless stopped along the way Samira would make her return to the guild hall and prepare to leave in the morning. Once morning came she would set out for the Spooky Forest, where apparently an entire abandoned research facility was hidden away.

Just after Samira had vanished, Kaori had leaned against the wall and narrowed her gaze on Kaori as she laid in bed in a what may as well have been a vegetative state. "You know, people normally react when they get bitch slapped." she said, her black eyes seeming the glare down at her weakened self. Still, even when talking to herself she was completely silent... This version of Kaori wasn't like her other ones... she was much more blunt and knew how to get things done. She walked over and grabbed Kaori by her neck and hauled her out of the bed before slamming her againist the wall. "Whats the difference between a king and his horse?" she asked with an irritated tone. Kaori had opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off immediately by her darker self. "I dont mean some kiddy shit like 'one has 4 legs and the other has 2' or 'ones a person and ones an animal.' If their form, ability, and power is exactly the same, then why is it one becomes the king and controls the battle and the other one becomes the horse and carries the king?" Kaori had looked herself in the eyes and said "I..." "Because the horse allows it!" she screamed and threw Kaori to the floor. She walked over and slammed her foot on Kaori's back, ignoring the disting popping sound of a dislocated rib. "I'm getting sick of your shit... you're going to make a decision. Do you want to remain the king in this relationship, or become my horse? Cause I'm not gonna carry dead weight."

Samira was right... Kaori ran away after regaining consciousness because she was afraid. She was afraid that she might attack Samira again. She was afraid that Samira would hate her. She was afraid that the false Samira would come back and begin attacking her again. She was afraid that she would cause more harm to the people in the castle than she already had. She was afraid Lady Ceostra would banish her. She was afraid Ikuchi would only see the face of weakness and failure when he looked at Kaori. She had left Ashley behind to keep her from being hurt, Ikuchi to keep her safe, and Gabriella to keep him from doing abnormally insane things... or, that was the lie she told herself. She didn't want Ashley to find out what she'd done. She looked at Kaori like some kind of hero, only a rank or two below Ikuchi, her savior. If she found out that Kaori had been compromised... she'd likely never view Kaori the same again. Ikuchi was obligated to fight his master, and Kaori had neglected him and his goals for so long... she knew what he was trying to do, but never let him get close enough for it. Gabriella... she had actually left for Ikuchi's sake. They got along, and she would be happier in his presence; she always was. "I don't hear answering..." Kaori said impatiently while turning her foot, grinding the heel further into Kaori's back.

Samira had thought Kaori was fine, that she was moving along and allowed herself to begin recovering only for Kaori to shatter her life by yet another stupid decision. She had stopped eating because she was too stressed to keep food down, she stopped drinking for the same reason. Her dreams were plagued with nightmares, and only allowed an hour or two on the best of days and a few minutes on the worst. Her spirits were left helpless as she didn't dare speak to them. It was her fault they had to fight Aquarius, and Kaori herself and she couldn't stand hearing them not attack her- as if everything was fine and it wasn't. Ikuchi had blamed himself for fighting Kaori, and had begun doing things to help her. Her eyes flew open and became alive, then became fierce and a blast of energy was released behind her, slamming into Kaori and sending the dark bitch flying to the wall. "A simple 'King' would have sufficed..." she said in a pained tone while sitting with her back against the now slightly dented wall. Kaori used her telekinesis to get up, and float to where the wooden box was on the bed, half hanging off from when the dark Kaori began her own intervention. She rushed to open it and took out a small letter that looked less fancy than the others, and had a hibiscus stamped on the envelope in wax.

'Kaori,

I can understand if you hate me for what I did, but I hope you can forgive it with time. I shouldn't have raised my blade to you, but rather, as your servant, supported you and attacked Samira. However, I had to make a conscious decision on how I thought of you and act based on that. You were never afraid of me, and always treated me as a human. You helped me understand humans, and never ceased encouraging me to continue learning about them. You didn't mock my fascination, and even in your heart you showed the same kind of love. However, as much as you'd given to me, I was never able to return to you. You were always in pain, consumed by your past and made vengeance your goal. I wanted to be more than a servant to you, but I could never earn your trust... still, I consider you my dearest of friends, so I made a decision to support that. Samira was the focus of all your adoration, and since you couldn't protect her, I did it in your stead. I did my best, but ultimately I couldn't stop your darkness... I'm sorry.

You're an incredibly strong person Lady Kaori. I know that once you speak with Samira, your heart will ignite and give birth to a new flame to replace the one that was extinguished. This is the kind of human you are... In preparation for your return, I set aside my hatred for your lover, Samira, and ventured to the magic hating kigdom of Pergrande and secured a title of nobility that I transferred to you. I've done the same with Minstrel, and even negotiated a trade agreement between the two while enforcing your rules to their caravans. In the box, you'll find the objects you were looking for as well, a rather strange weapon but I understand why you wanted to keep it from your brother. I lost my honor when I fought you, and forfeited my right to serve under you- so I am now a ronin, a servant without a master. My last wish is that you can be happy with Samira, and that you'll never stop smiling for her. May we never meet, even when the sun rises on my ashes.'~ Ikuchi

Kaori had opened the first of the three scrolls and inspected it, the trade was more in favor of the clan than Minstrel. They were restricted to a specific area of the Lareci Lands that was on the border where merchants from the rest of the lands would gather and buy their wares for a lower price and then redistribute them. It was only ten percent lower than normal, but that was still a lot when added up... The letter of nobility was official and defined the range of Kaori's newly acquired properties very well, and it seemed that he already distributed some of Kaori's warriors to secure them and begin training people. The box of chocolates had contained the same ones Kaori loved, and the orchids had been damaged from earlier but Kaori appreciated them all the same. "Oi, you gonna stop sitting on your ass or do I have to-" "Shutup." The real Kaori had said, causing her darker variant to stop in her tracks. The act had made the darker Kaori smile, it was a sign that the real Kaori was returning to her original self. Over the next couple months, the dark Kaori had been training her original self to get her back up to snuff. The first thing was getting Kaori to walk on her own two feet, a task that took the first few weeks to accomplish. After that they began martial arts training, skipping building her arm strength back since her body would adapt and begin building it as they trained. The last two weeks as a very strict regiment of Kaori waking up and doing a hundred fifty push ups, two hundred sit ups, and then fighting her dark counterpart for three hours with very few breaks in between. Two days before Samira's little meeting, Kaori had summoned her spirits to speak with them. The conversation was short, and to summarize it, none of her spirits hated her for what happened- they just hoped it never happened again.

The day that Samira was heading out, Kaori had been wanting to confront her to at least dignify her scolding with a response but wasn't able to find the right time for it. Kaori would arrived early in the morning and decided to go to her restaurant where she was greeted with a warm hug from Cassidy and the information that Ashley, Gabriella, and Ikuchi had all left. Upon asking where they all went, Ikuchi and company didn't say- typical, and from what she heard from a conversation earlier, Samira had gone to the Spooky Forest which was a good few hours fly away- farther if walking. She pulled her iLac out and called the Arc "Hey, this is the Captain. Has Samira left Hargeon yet? I see, thank you." the conversation was brief, but it would seem Samira was still at the castle and would likely be leaving soon. On her way down, she'd hear a commotion coming from the guild hall- something about a Wizard Saint showing up, very few even knowing that Kaori was (technically) part of the guild. Kaori had leaned against the frame of the open door to the castle, holding her hands in front of her while looking at the ground and ignoring the small crowd. Comments like 'Just as beautiful as you'd expect a saint to be' and 'I wonder what it'd take to get a picture with her' had flew over Kaori's head. The more she ignored them, the more people made comments, which made even more people gather around. As soon as Samira had gotten near, Kaori's eyes came to life and she looked up at her with a bright smile that made the entire crowd grow silent. Kaori had stopped a couple feel away from Samira in a position that implied she was about to hug her to the ground, but it was like someone stopped time and made Kaori freeze. Kaori had remembered how angry she was with her, and immediately her eyes turned unsure, she looked down while grabbing her arm. "H-hey..." she would say in an awkward tone. It was common for friends to have arguments, but Kaori didn't know that... the few friends she had all got along with her well to the point where they didn't fight. The people around had begun talking about the situation, some commenting that they didn't know Samira knew one of the strongest wizards in Fiore. "I... ummm... C-can I come w-with you?" she asked nervously, keeping her gaze anywhere that wasn't where Samira was.

'You're seriously going to an ABANDONED building that happens to be somewhere in a location with the word SPOOKY in it?' Susano's voice entered Samira's mind as she prepared herself to leave for the location of where she might find further clues for a spirit long missing with time. His tone was rather annoyed but also had a sense that even he was astonished by how no red alarms had been set off in his summoner's head. The whole thing seemed suspicious and likely dangerous, but Samira was not really looking for advice. It did not help that Bastet, who's contract the whole thing was relating to, was also encouraging her.

"Yes, that is correct," Samira said with no worry or caution in her voice whatsoever. The Spooky Forest was a place she had been to once before, although admittedly she never ventured too far in. In her opinion, the place was likely just named that due to some local superstition. As for the building itself...well it was a strange location for a research facility, but maybe the environment helped in whatever research projects was going on. If they were dealing with magical artifacts and such it was good to keep it away from the general population in case anything went awry or something. "Do you have any other words for me before I set off, or are you going to suggest I see if there is also a haunted insane asylum there as well to check into?"

'That...is actually a pretty damn good idea. Lets do that instead and drop the totally not obvious red flag danger zone.'

Samira sighed as she shook her head. Honestly. As soon as the straps of her knapsack were placed over her shoulders, the summoner opened the door of her room and made her exit. Not much was within it aside from the usual essentials, the chakrams and dagger she normally carried, as well as the folder that contained the documents and maps she had been given. Although she had been working in getting better with a bow, she felt it was not necessary to bring one for a task that should of been simple. Not to mention it would of been a pain to lug around on her journey. She had assumed it would of been a long one and had no expectation that a certain friend would return with a faster method of travel.

On her way down, Samira paused her steps after a group of fellow guild members got in her way. They were muttering something about a Wizard Saint and were rushing off to see for themselves what all the fuss was about. "Wizard Saint? Here?" Her green eyes blinked curiously for a moment as she stood there. A shame she had a rather important task to do or she would be interested in finding out more. The journey towards the exit of the guild hall continued and it was then she realized the Wizard Saint wasn't around visiting the guild master or anything, but was standing right by the door for every onlooker to stop and gossip. As she got closer her eyes had gone wide as her mind tried processing what she was seeing correctly. Her heart stopped for a moment as did her steps. Was that really Kaori? Samira begun walking forward again with quickened steps and evaded the people that got in her way. She could have shoved them away completely, but she wasn't exactly rude enough for that. Kaori then noticed her and smiled, causing a tidal wave of happiness within the summoner. Her friend had returned and seemed to have fully recovered. It also marked the first time she had seen the ninja smile while in her true undisguised form.

Kaori seemed to have been in a position to give a hug, but stopped herself, seeming to lose confidence and grow nervous. That was understandable. Samira did not exactly leave on good terms, but that was thanks to the timing of the amulet. Ikuchi's father could have given more of a warning about that beforehand. The good news was that she was no longer angry with Kaori. She had said her words and unleashed it on the ninja two months ago, and it seemed Kaori had taken them seriously enough to get her butt in gear and restore herself to how she was before. Although, Samira was uncertain if the nervousness was a good thing to have picked up. Kaori still was unable to look at her directly and was even stuttering her words. She ignored the gossip of the crowd and paid more focus to the one she had been waiting to come back for a long while. While she could have questioned how Kaori knew she was going somewhere or if she even knew where she was going, Samira ignored that temptation for the moment. The ninja may have lost her confidence to give a hug, but Samira had no reason to lose hers. The question was responded to by Samira quickly moving closer and wrapping her arms around Kaori for a warm hug of her own, unless resisted. The hold would then tighten, as if Samira was afraid to let go in case it was only another one of those dreams that haunted her months ago. Seeming satisfied that the Kaori in her arms was real, Samira pulled away and smiled gently as she took the ninja's hands in her own. "Welcome home, Kaori." She was finally able to say those words that had been held inside ever since she thought of them in Iceberg.

Samira fully released Kaori and placed her hands at her side. The greeting was done, but the matter of answering the question was still present. She kept her smile on in order to not give Kaori the wrong idea, but inside she was frowning deeply and was concerned. The last time she had asked Kaori to help her it ended in such a way that Samira wished she could have messed with the timeline to prevent it. That was not something she wanted to repeat.

'She stronger now. I feel it. Sweet Kaori not lose self again.'

'Well that's good, because if she did we would be totally screwed. The beast isn't exactly here to serve as a distraction.'

'Brother, you were supposed to stop calling the Hound of Dragons by that term.'

'He's not even here! What difference does it make?!'

'You should get yourself used to it while you have the chance. As for you, Samira, I understand your concerns, but you will not be able to reform your bonds if you continue to fear what may happen. What happened then is not evidence to support what may happen now. Trust that she has learned from the past and will not repeat those actions.'

'Plus she kind of sort of has a ship. You know, one of those things you don't have but probably should get at some point so we don't have to always watch the scenic route version. I like watching action, not pretty little flower fields passing by as a train moves.'

While the conversation with the spirits was going on, there was a rather awkward moment of silence going on in regards to Samira's part. If only time stopped whenever that happened to avoid such things! Her smile turned into a wide grin as she tilted her head, finally making some form of movement and coming to a decision. "Most certainly! I will assume you would like to hear the details on the way?" If at any point Kaori suggested they take one of her ships Samira would agree to it. She wasn't going to flat out ask since that might have given her friend the idea she was being used for her more efficient method of transportation. Otherwise, Samira would begin making her way to the train station.

Regardless of the transportation method, Samira would bring out the folder that held the documents from her bag. "I do not believe I have ever mentioned details concerning some of my contracts. One of my spirits is connected with another one much like Susano and Amaterasu are." Samira stopped herself, recalling that Kaori barely even knew either of them and even Ikuchi did not know of it until Minstrel. "Apologies, I forgot you may not know that detail. They are siblings. Although these other two spirits work differently. They are stronger when together. The brother has been missing for centuries, and it is a key I do not even own. From what I have been told he is technically not even a spirit anymore. My contract is that I am supposed to first find his location, and then somehow make him a spirit once more. I am still on part one of that. The leads I had from my grandfather's research ran dry so it has been on the to do list these past few months." Samira then held up a file that had a picture of a building in one hand, and then in the other hand a map of Spooky Forest with coordinates to the research facility that would be their destination. "I got some luck though and met with a contact of my grandfather recently. Apparently there is a building that still holds some of his research in one of the offices. The information I am looking for may be there as well as...some... other... things." Samira trailed off with a frown on her face. She had told Ikuchi of some of the things she wanted to find out back in Iceberg, but Kaori still had no knowledge of that either. The ninja really had missed a lot while she was away. "I suppose I can go over that later. For now, I intend to go to this research facility and see what I can find. It is supposed to be abandoned so I do not expect much trouble." If they were using one of Kaori's ships to travel the map would be given to Kaori so she knew exactly where they needed to go.

If using the ship, as it got closer to the coordinates Samira's spirits and even Kaori's if they were connected to her mind or somewhere on the ship would begin to feel something was off. Magic of the celestial realm was present but it was clouded, heavy, and tainted. The weaker ones would feel it more, as if it were a warning to something gone very wrong, and that a much stronger spirit was present.

Kaori had tesned up when Samira hugged her while also shutting her eyes in preparation for further punishment. She remained tense for several seconds while she processed the fact that she wasn't being hit, screamed at, or worse. Kaori slowly moved her hands to return the hug, relaxing once her arms were around Samira and then tightening her hug. Samira had disconnected but was still holding Kaori's waist when she said 'Welcome home, Kaori' and fully released her. Kaori wanted to cry from being welcomed back, and someone implying that the castle and city it resided in was her home- somewhere she was safe, with people who cared about her existance who would willingly die for her. It was after that, that Kaori had asked if she could come along. She didn't know the full details, nor did she care for them. Samira was her best friend even if she wanted her to be more than that, but time could change that status and if Sammy was going anywhere, Kaori wanted to be there. Protection was, of course, at the forefront of her mind; but it wasn't the sole reason she wanted to be around Sammy. Samira had gone through many channels, likely done several missions without Kaori, and had come out on top every time- undoubtedly she was strong enough to stand on her own feet rather than be carried. Kaori wanted to protect her, but she also wanted to watch her get stronger and help her along the way. Samira had, after a minute that felt much longer, allowed Kaori to come along and gotten a reaction that was considerably less conventional that her planned reaction was.

Kaori had moved forward and grabbed Samira's waist while pressing their lips together. Her lips were soft and at first, Kaori was relaxed and already accepting the action, and then she realized that she was kissing her friend in broad daylight, without permission, in the middle of a crowd, and with both of their spirits watching... Kaori immediately backed away with her eyes so wide enough to use as a pool... a red pool... that was a horrible analogy. The crowd was completely silent, all of them with their bottom jaw on the floor, eyes appearing as white circles and shadows casting over their faces from what they'd just witnessed. Kaori panicked and exclaimed "I- I- I- Snoo-oop Genie!" causing their lord and savior... well, not lord but definitely savior, to appear and snap his fingers, sending them to White Mermaid; Samira's room specifically. Kaori had moved herself back, stepping away from Samira with an absolutely terrified look. Her words came in a weak tone that was filled with fear of being hated, and panic "I- I didn't... I'm sorry... I-" gone, she'd vanished completely and appeared in her room, locking the door. Snoop Genie blinked a few times "Ey, I been smokin' too much modafukkin weed- I know dat gurl did not just vanish. Dis somma dat ghost shit, I'm out." and he vanished in a puff of smoke.

If Samira would go to Kaori's room to find out what happened, she'd find the door was completely locked and the sound of Kaori crying could be heard on the other side. If Samira didn't go after Kaori to discuss the event, or if she did and return to her room, she'd see Kaori sitting on her bed with one leg folded over the other in a very lady like expression. The difference between this Kaori and the one that vanished was the distinct lack of crying, the presence of a smirk on her face, and the pitch black eyes where ruby ones should've been. "So that's what her reaction is... my god, she's gotten soft." she said calmly. "Before, she could've done that with a straight face, you know... Oh, are you surprised to see me?" She began standing up while saying "Don't worry, I'll be a good girl... mostly" while approaching Samira with her standard smirk on her face. "Sorry for making Kay do that, I wanted to see her reaction. Needless to say, it was amusing enough- though I didn't expect it to make her cry." Kaori had began walking around Samira while looking her over. "She's so obsessed with not pissing you off, it's laughable... and my word, the amount of confusion... Poor thing doesn't even know how to act around you. Anyhow, why don't you give me the details on our little field trip. I'll pass the memo along when we get there." she said while making her way back to Samira's bed to sit down and listen.

This version of Kaori likely wouldn't get the same information about Samira's spirits as the real one, nor would she get the same friendly tone- which she was alright with. She'd listen to the details, as few as there were, and then vanish to let Salty know where to go. The old Sailor didn't give her the same treatment her original got, but he'd gotten used to her before Kaori vanished and was saving his 'welcome back' for the real variant. Upon getting close, the ship suddenly dropped out of the sky. It didn't start descending, it dropped... three hundred feet straight down. Whatever energy was tripping the celestial being's 'oh shit' radars, was also effecting the air and causing the ship to go down. The dark Kaori appeared in Samira's room and wrapped her arms and legs around her tightly. The sounds of trees hitting the bottom of the ship was then heard, and finally, a second jerk that signaled the ship had successfully crashed. "You're lucky you're cute... that hurt like a bitch." she said while releasing Samira and then vanished. When Samira got to the cargo bay, she'd see Kaori standing there looking out across the spooky forest and the crater around them. "Sorry for the landing Captain, I couldn't get the thrusters back online in time. It'll take a while to get the repairs done, so take your time." "Acknowledged" Kaori replied, her usual strength and confidence being back in full force. "Hey captain?" "Yes?" "Welcome back." Kaori would turn, her ruby eyes lining up with Samira's and then they'd immediately look at the ground. "S-salty can handle things here... I'll... I'll follow you." she'd say with a nervous tone, every last bit of her prior confidence gone instantly, reinforcing the fact that she wasn't sure how to act. Was she going to be hit for something she had no control of? Was more screaming on the horizon? Or would there be kinship, or maybe a return kiss... nah, that last one's impossible.

Samira didn't even have time to properly react to Kaori taking off the way she had. Her eyes were still adjusting to the sudden switch of surroundings, and her mind...well it had been greatly distracted with other flashing thoughts and had to be forced back into focusing on the newest chain of events. Opening the door, she left her room and began to look around for the one that belonged to Kaori's room. It was found, and from the sounds of crying that could be heard on the other side it was currently occupied by the ninja. She lifted her hand, gently morphing it into a fist, and reached out to knock upon the door's surface. The movement stopped just before her fist made contact. What was she supposed to even say if the door opened for her? Samira realized she had no words. She wasn't even sure what she was supposed to do in general. Her outstretched arm fell back to her side as she turned around and went back to her room.

What should have been time to get some time to think about current events turned into a small chat with a version of Kaori she never wanted to see again. As she entered her room and closed the door, her green eyes widened when the voice reached her ears and she took notice of the dark Kaori sitting on her bed. A deep frown crossed her features as her eyes then narrowed in complete dislike for the woman that was beginning to stand. Outside she appeared to be standing confident and unwavering as the dark version spoke and circled her, but inside she was terrified. It didn't appear the dark version intended to do anything malicious and was more concerned with amusing herself by making the real Kaori do certain actions while also using words to toy with the summoner. Still, the fact that version could still take form was a shock she was not prepared for. That battle really was a waste entirely if the dark version was already up and able to control Kaori again. Samira feared what would happen if things started to repeat whenever the dark version got bored. There was no possible way she would be able to put a stop to it if things got out of hands. Nothing was said in reply as the circling and comments continued. When details of the "field trip" were requested, Samira presented them in a less than friendly tone, as well as handed over the map. Then that version was gone, leaving the summoner alone in her room once more.

'Damn, that bitch is back too.'

'It is a part of the girl. Naturally, it will always be present. I was not able to purify and reset the darkness levels as I had intended before. I would be against trusting such a thing to roam so freely, however-'

'Let me guess: we have no choice.'

'I also did not sense any ill intent. For now, I stand by my earlier statement. The young Lareci clan leader should be able to control her dark counterpart. We should have little to worry about.'

'Great, now that we think we are safe, lets change topics and go over that kiss!'

"Must we?" Samira questioned her spirits with a face palming sigh. She sat on her bed and then allowed herself to fall backwards so she was laying on its surface with her legs still over the side. That surprise kiss was yet another tally on the board of surprising intimate moments that have happened to her, only that time it had been by Kaori. All Samira could remember clearly was the soft lips of the ninja pressed against hers, and her own eyes blinking in surprise, while also widening when she realized the majority of the guild had front row seats. The gossip was going to be a nuisance, and she was pretty sure she saw some iLacs out there held up to take a snapshot. Her hand went up towards her face where her fingers then touched her lips. The feeling of the kiss was still there and so was the embarrassment of everyone watching. Was there anything else? In those confusing and strange intimate events with Ikuchi she often recalled losing herself in the moment, complete with heart racing and anxious feelings during and after. All certain things that should not have happened ever. With Kaori there wasn't anything there. It was just something that happened and had no impact on her mind or body aside from the embarrassment of the spectators. If they were not there even the embarrassment may not have existed. Kind of a surprising realization considering how she was when presented with the visions while in Iceberg. That was quite a while ago though, and now that she was actually experiencing similar occasions in life, she came to know just how influential the visions were. She just did not have any romantic feelings for her friend. There was love in friendship but nothing more.

'Hm, yes, but not for the reasons our flaming pervert has. We can tell you didn't really feel anything from it. So, as an unofficial therapist I will ask one thing: how do you feel about that?'

"You are joking..."

'Yes and no. I actually did want to say that to you at least once. Now for the serious part: Stop being straight.'

Samira's eyes went blank as she sweat dropped at that suggestion. "Susano, it does not work that way."

'As...blunt as my younger brother is, he does have a point. Perhaps you should be more open minded. She does seem to have feelings for you. Would it not be wise to find it within yourself to return those feelings instead of wasting them on another?'

"On another? Surely you do not mean-"

'I do. It is evident that something is there, or you would be as numb to his actions as you were to hers. Unless, of course, you are trying to convince me you would react the same way if any man approached you and attempted those same acts.'

"I do not love him. I am completely aware any feelings there are misplaced."

'Allowing your mind to dictate such things is your problem. In that very statement you deny love and then also state there are feelings, however misplaced they are. Your heart seems to be poking holes through that mind barrier of yours.'

"Honestly, I know my own feelings! There is not anything there nor have I even thought about it for over two months."

'Okay, look. I would believe those words if we haven't already seen this scenario before. Whenever the bea-Ikuchi disappears you build a wall, and then convince yourself you have moved on, there's nothing there, it was just a reaction with no meaning. He comes back and the wall comes down. All it takes is a head pat apparently. Now, assuming he stops being a coward and does come back, that wall will come down rather easily. It's embarrassing really.'

'Brother...'

'No, no. I am not done here. Now since you say those feelings are misplaced that is a damn good thing because I agree. Not because of that whole beast thing I always called him by. I'll drop that bias for the moment.'

'Uh, Susano...'

'Quiet, Agni. I'm lecturing. Now, you do realize he's pretty much the servant of Kaori, right? You know, the girl in that other room that is crying because she has no idea how she is supposed to react around you and regrets even kissing you? Forget about that nonsense where he isn't sure whether he can be a servant still or not. Point is, they're close. Lets pretend for a moment she found out about that little adventure you had. Hell, lets just pretend she knows all of the intimate details about everything that went on while she was away. That would be very devastating to her, wouldn't it?'

'I speak.'

'No, you do not speak. Don't interrupt me. Now since you are so aware that your feelings are so misplaced, it will not affect you at all when I say that you and him are not going to be a thing. Ever.'

'Susano, please, I request that-'

'You all are starting to get on my nerves. Now let me finish. He is loyal to Kaori and always will be. Too much has been done to hurt her already. I seriously doubt he is ever going to be doing that again, and if he were, it will not be by being with someone he knows she loves.'

'Fool, stop!'

'Plus, you also have to consider he never actually said he stopped hating you, or even forgave you for that matter. You could say him using the name "Sammy" when he left instead of your normal one has some form of significance, but that is just speculation at best. I wouldn't have even believed it happened if not for your memory replay. So, the two of you? Nothing romantically and will continue to be so. Now start paying more attention to the one that clearly wants to be with you.'

'BROTHER!'

'WHAT?!'

'SUSANO, YOU JERK!' By that point Samira was in a hysterical fit of tears. So much so that she couldn't even yell vocally at the spirit as she normally would have and had to send it mentally. The mind link was then cut off.

'...too far?'

Sometime during the flight Samira had gotten over Susano's lecture...scolding...whatever the heck that was. Her red puffy eyes had returned to normal and for the most part she was composed. The pillow on her bed wasn't so lucky considering it was somewhat misshapen from being held too tightly and wet from her crying. She had just begun to leave the bed and stand up when something seemed to be terribly wrong with the ship. It began to fall and started a ride that was worse than any rollercoaster imaginable. It sent waves of panic within the summoner but she soon felt herself being held tightly. The last force impact had concluded, indicating that the momentum of the ship had ceased and the crash was complete. Not exactly a gentle landing, but it seemed the dark Kaori had at least prevented some harm from coming to her. For whatever reason. It was awkward to be called cute by the darker side of Kaori.

Samira left her room, making her way towards Kaori's to check on her but saw no one there. To the cargo bay she went after grabbing her things. Once there she found her target as well as Salty, who would be having to make repairs. That made sense, although Samira wondered what caused the ship to crash in the first place. Kaori took notice of her presence and turned, but kept her gaze low after making eye contact for a split second. Then that stuttering voice again. Others may have found it annoying, but Samira was starting to grow even more concerned. Was Kaori really that unsure on how to act? She wasn't even sure if it still had to do with the false illusion or if her scolding two months prior was the cause. Regardless, acting in that manner was not the Kaori she knew. The woman resisted the urge to sigh hopelessly. Samira raised her hand and placed her fingers under Kaori's chin to gently raise and adjust it so they were meeting eyes, if allowed. Samira's lips would form a small smile and she released the gentle hold on the other's chin. "That is better." Whether or not Samira was allowed to do that last action or not, the next set of words would follow. "There really is no reason to be so nervous around me. You acting this way makes me worried." The words were gentle and did show concern for the status of her friend, but there was no guilt at the possibility what she did was the cause of the personality switch or made it worse. She could have apologized for the way her lecture went two months ago, but she felt no reason to. Her words were true and the ninja deserved a couple of slaps. In her opinion, if she said she was sorry then she would just be another person that bowed down to Kaori rather than show signs of disapproval when it needed to be done.

Samira turned and held up one of the papers. It was a map of Spooky Forest but more zoomed in and showed paths and other coordinates. "I think based on where we are we should go...that way," she said as she turned to face a different direction and pointed. She walked forward, expecting Kaori to follow since she had stated she would. The ship had landed quite close to their destination. About ten minutes of walking and the duo would come across a metal gate that went around a rather large building. There were no windows and there were many side areas added on to the building, likely being different departments of the facility and had connection tunnels inside the main building. It did look to be quite abandoned as well. No one was outside and the building itself was doing a good job of blending into the forest due to the vegetation growing along its walls. "This looks to be the correct place," Samira stated as she pulled the paper away from her gaze and looked at the building with a curious look. Her hands went for the gate, which opened easily with a high pitched creaking noise. It wasn't even locked.

Upon reaching the main entrance, the girls would find that it too was unlocked and the metal doors opened with ease. What was inside though was a sight that was a little...off. The first room featured the main desk area. A large glass encased desk stood in the middle with a set of hallways leading to both the left and right of the building, as well as a set of spiral stairs on each side that went to the second floor for more hallways. There was also an elevator behind the front desk cube. What made this normal scene odd? Well for one, it was an abandoned building with electricity. All the lights and machinery were going, well the lights that weren't hanging from the ceiling and broken or flickering, and the same could be said with the lacrima gadgets and technology. Nearby trash cans were knocked over, papers were everywhere, the glass casing that surrounded the front desk had cracks and some broken spots. It was a mess. As Samira peered down one of the hallways she noticed it too was in the same condition, although she could of sworn she saw pools of blood along the ground and walls. Then there was a scream from the second level. Samira looked up and saw a man wearing a lab coat running in a terrified style, as if he were running from something. Some sort of fog followed him, catching up with ease, and seemed to lift the man from the ground and consumed him. Well that's what it appeared to look like. Really the dark colored fog just covered up the fact that he was being ripped to pieces, but the blood and parts that fell to the ground and sprayed on the wall was enough evidence if the screaming was not enough. The fog paused for a moment once the screaming ended, as if it took noticed of the two new arrivals in the building. It then took off into the left hallway of the second level.

Samira's face was a mix of blankness and horrified. "I...this place was supposed to be abandoned. I do not know what that was about." The thought of leaving entered her mind, but she needed that information and she didn't want to come off as cowardly. She put the zoomed in map of Spooky Forest under her small stack of papers and looked at the new one; a map layout of the building. "We are supposed to go into that hallway where that thing went." The words were said with hesitance. She wasn't even sure what that thing was. Nothing in her notes included anything like that. Still, the summoner slowly began making her way towards the staircase even as more screams echoed throughout the hallways.

If Kaori followed Samira or ran up ahead to check it out, she'd run into a black cat covered in golden accessories sitting peacefully in the middle of the hallway facing the two girls. Her nose would be raised high and the tail would swish in such a manner that one would think she assumed she was better than anything else in the world. "I am here to relay a message since someone has forgotten to reopen the mind link. Turn back. This place reeks of corrupted celestial energy. These stupid humans have dabbled in things they do not understand. Leave them to suffer. If you ignore my warning you will not like what is ahead."

Kaori had tensed up when Samira got closer, quick flashbacks to when the other version of her was attacking Kaori flew into her mind. As she got closer, Samira's evil version's voice began getting louder and Kaori's eyes turned dull as her heart rate picked up... "I wanted to see ONE of these things, and you turn into a damn child instantly! Then you don't even ask what I want you selfish bitch, and force me to come along! Do you know how hard it is holding my lunch in on the back of that shit!? No, you don't! You don't even care about my well being! You just wanna see your fucking birds, and make yourself happy! Then you'll go back to your ship and flaunt all your WONDERFUL wealth about, with your expensive ass vanity set, expensive ass bed, fancy fucking chest while I'M left wondering what kind of TWILIGHT ZONE BULL SHIT you dragged me to! You snuggle the living shit out of me, and you know what- YOUR HAIR SMELLS LIKE SHIT! I don't want that near me-" The feeling of something touching her chin broke Kaori from her miniature nightmare as her line of sights was brought back up. Samira said "That's better" obviously referring to Kaori looking at her, but as soon as her fingers left Kaori's chin and stopped forcing eye contact, the ninja's head returned to looking away and she grabbed her gloved left arm nervously. Samira said "There really is no reason to be acting so nervous around me. You acting this way makes me worried." to which Kaori could only respond with a very weak "I'm sorry..." while continuing to avoid eye contact.

It was obvious that Kaori wasn't changing her unease around Samira anytime soon. There was a lot of damage that was dealt and the fact that she was even present was nothing short of a miracle. She was trying to recover, but there were a lot of negative emotions mixed in with Kaori's feelings for Samira- feelings that Kaori knew would never be returned, and for that reason never brought up. It was possibly for the reason that Samira knew her situation wouldn't improve quickly that she began walking to the facility rather than continuing her attempt at making Kaori not be afraid of her. Kaori had indeed followed Samira as she said she would do, she certainly wasn't going to lead since she hadn't the slightly idea where to go, and the two had eventually come across a facility that was allegedly abandoned. Upon entering there was obviously a story behind the terrible scene before them as lights hung from their wires, and several were flickering. Blood splatters on the walls were still running, a clear indication that they were fresh and this building wasn't nearly as 'abandoned' as Samira was lead to believe. Kaori heard the screams of terror first, and then looked up to see a man in a lab coat running with some sort of figure behind him that, upon catching up to the expert athelete in only a few seconds because he was a lab worker and not Usain Bolt (someone Snoop Genie told Kaori about) began tearing the man apart by consuming it... or... something like that.

Kaori didn't say anything when Samira mentioned that the lab was supposed to be vacant, nor did she speak when Samira pointed out where they had to go... the same place the monster ghost thing went. Kaori had followed Samira, not liking the feeling of leaving her to scout ahead. At the hall, they came across a rather strange sight considering the location... A cat. By the time the cat began speaking, Kaori had already picked it up and was holding it to her chest while it spoke. "I am here to relay a message since someone has forgotten to reopen the mind link. Turn back. This place reeks of corrupted celestial energy. These stupid humans have dabbled in things they do not understand. Leave them to suffer. If you ignore my warning you will not like what is ahead." the creature said, letting Kaori know that it was one of Samira's spirits and immediately being enough to put it back down for fear of offending Samira. "Um... I... don't have a way to leave... I'm sorry." she said, feeling her pride get torn since Kaori was always the one who had some form of evac. Her bike was on the arc, the Arc was much too large get them out without risking crushing the group, her hawk was in Hargeon, and the mermaid was being repaired... "I- I'd actually like to present an alternative... We could destroy this place to ensure the experiments stop." she was looking at the cat instead of Samira. It was sad to think that Kaori felt more comfortable addressing someone she'd never met than she did addressing her closest friend, but that was the extent of her damage if you watered it down a bit... "Even if we don't find what we came here for, I can't forgive these people for their experiments. Even if they all get killed, that leaves their experiments to run amok. Furthermore, leaving means someone else, or the experiments themselves if able, could start their work up again and make things worse... If we turn this place into a crater then the experiments would be over, unless there's another facility we don't know about."

If Samira would choose to leave, Kaori would give no attempt at stopping her; she'd simply call the arc in to level the place. If Samira chose to stay, then Kaori would be at her back the whole time protecting her. Of course, Samira had come all this way to get something that she likely wouldn't want to leave behind, so the course of action was obvious. Before an answer could be properly heard however, Kaori felt something... and intent to kill, and time seemed to slow down as a burst of light flew down the hall. Kaori vanished, reappearing in front Samira with her hand up in a fist, blood running down her arm from where she was grabbing something... a katana was in her hand, the blade having cut into her skin after getting past her armor that was much like Ikuchi's, an invisible barrier. Kaori had looked at Amaterasu without a single drop of surprise or fear. The thing about Celestial Spirits was that there were very few with the authority to attack their summoner, and those contracts were normally limited to spirits of excessive power like Aquarius. Other spirits would never attack their summoner, and Kaori had the feeling Amaterasu fell in the same loop as those other spirits, and not Aquarius. Kaori looked at the sword and noted that it wasn't the one she made for Amaterasu, and was given a second reason to know this person was fake. Kaori closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You would've been wise to come after me first." Kaori said in a threatening tone, millions of times more confident than before and signaled that the Kaori that Samira knew was present- just not when it came to directly interacting with her.

Kaori vanished and appeared behind Amaterasu while bringing her heel down over her head, the look in her eyes could only be described as nothing less that dangerous beyond compare- just like old times. Amaterasu had vanished herself and when Kaori's foot hit the floor, the metal surface bent, showing part of the reason Kaori was labeled one of the strongest "good" mages in the country. Even without her magic she was extremely powerful, with it, she could easily kill several of the other saints. She vanished again and appeared in front Amaterasu trying to cut her with a cutlass and being blocked by the spirit's sword, but she also appeared behind Amaterasu while hitting her in the back with a naginata. A red energy shot up the shaft and caused a shock wave to sent Amaterasu flying forward, slamming into a wall with enough force to bend several of the metal panels to the point where they fell off. At the same time, the clone that attacker her originally had exploded, a new trick of Kaori's, and sent Amaterasu away from the wall. Kaori threw the naginata at Amaterasu while calling out a pair of long swords made of bone, vanishing to attack Amaterasu and provision as little time for recovery as humanly (and inhumanly) possible. Amaterasu was quick to react, blocking Kaori's attacks as they came while gritting her teeth from how painfully strong she was. Kaori had vanished as Amaterasu made a swing, reappearing to grab her naginata from the air and make an attack that was dodged. She slammed the tip of the weapon in the ground while spinning and landing a kick on her face, vanishing again and making an attack at her back that was blocked.

It became quickly appearant that she had to become even more unconventional, and Kaori had just the perfect method of catching her off guard. Kaori had vanished and reappeared, each time trying to get a small cut off on her, or seemingly so- each time being blocked. Kaori appeared farther back and Amaterasu exploded from the explosion lacrima she planted on her, but it wasn't enough to kill her. "You know... what you're doing is vain. She already belongs to your servant, their... actions were quite amusing." Amaterasu said in a toxic voice. The ground began glowing white, signaling that it was much too late for Amaterasu to vanish since she and Samira were both caught in Kaori's spell. Samira would feel Kaori's fear of rejection, fear of making the wrong move and causing Samira to hate her. She'd feel Kaori's shame... she wasn't strong enough to fight the false Samira, she let herself be controlled, she attacked Samira, she ran away again, she hurt Samira, and even now she was being a burden... Kaori was feeling pain, more than usual- more than humans should be able to take. Amaterasu's eyes widened and she hit the floor, her arms shook and were hardly able to keep her up. Kaori stood before her with her naginata raised like a harpoon. "I already knew about what happened... and I don't care." as much as Kaori believed that last part, the amount of pain in the area around her would be an obvious sign that she was lying. "If I had to choose between her happiness or my desires, I'd rather see her smile even if I die inside from the process." she said before ramming the blade through Amaterasu's skull, causing her to erupt into particles and be gone. The pain in the area only increased further, but quickly faded as Kaori turned her spell off. "Of course... we both know she'd never say that in front of you." Kaori said and turned to face Samira, revealing one ruby eye and one black eye and explaining why she had said what she said. "I had to put her to sleep, so you'll be dealing with me for a while... better than the alternative." Kaori reached into her satchel and pulled out an iLac. After a few moments of holding it to her ear, she said "This is the captain. I'm at a facility in the Spooky Forest, requesting a clearing squad." She would then look at Samira and say "I'm scrapping this place. These kinds of experiments are fucked up, and I'm not risking anyone starting them up again. That's what she wanted to tell you but didn't want to risk pissing you off." a loud thud would be heard outside the facility followed by five armed men in black armor rushing in, keeping their guns at the ready. Kaori had given them their location telepathically and waited for them to catch up. Their instructions were simple, kill anything that wasn't Kaori or Samira... including celestial spirits that weren't accompanied by either of them.

The cat, known in spirit form as Bastet, known as Mau in cat form, could only sweatdrop as the ninja woman picked her up and held her. Her message was supposed to be serious, and even with her stern voice the fact she was being held as if she were some adorable creature made it less so. 'This is why I hate mortals...' Mau thought to herself. The woman thankfully got some sense and put her down. This was a serious situation, not some petting zoo. Her green cat eyes enlarged slightly and her ears twitched curiously. The black cat stared at Kaori as she spoke, and turned her gaze to Samira, who could only sigh at the fact that once again she was being avoided. The summoner really did not enjoy her friend acting so nervous, and felt it was worse than the first time she had been in Kaori's room and thought she had entered some alternate reality.

They listened to the idea presented and it seemed reasonable enough. Regardless, Samira had no intention of turning back. There was a possibility there was information she needed there. It would just be a more complicated task than she had originally anticipated. Another issue was presented in her thoughts and that was if there were any other survivors. Well, that could be handled later. They needed to first find a particular office before destroying the place anyway. Samira opened her mouth to speak when she was interrupted as a quick flash of light flew through the halls, colliding with Kaori, who had moved to stand in front of her and stopped the attack. "Ama?" Her words were of disbelief as her eyes widened, but the sensation passed over quickly. That was not her spirit. Not only would Amaterasu never attack her in such a way, there was no magical connection with the imposter. It did not have the spirit's warmth from the glowing aura, only coldness and more sinister. Another thing that was surprising was Kaori's reaction. For some reason seeing the ninja back to her old self made her smile, feeling some happiness and relief during a scenario that would have made such actions inappropriate normally. It was unfortunate that Kaori lacked the confidence when interacting with her, but at least Samira now knew her friend was still as capable as ever when it came to enemies. Her safety would not have to be worried about.

The battle was watched, with Samira admiring Kaori's returned strength and power. Mau took a seat on the floor next to where her summoner stood and swished her tail while tilting her head. "Be prepared, summoner. These fakes are not what I am worried about. There's something...else." The black cat did not say anything more. She took to standing on all four paws and walked right into a wall, vanishing. "Huh?" Samira had looked down after Mau had spoken, but the cat was already in the middle of leaving. Vague answers. Predictable. Her head snapped back up when the fake Amaterasu mentioned details she would have rather not been said. There was no embarrassment written on her face, but rather anger. Then it morphed into one of emotional pain as Kaori's powers leaked like they always usually did. It was too much to handle all at once and even Samira had found herself on the floor from it. Her own emotions added into it as Kaori stated she already knew of the events. Surprise, guilt, and even grief at the words of her dying inside. Why did things have to end up so messed up?! It soon passed as the battle came to an end, as did the tone of voice of Kaori, who was now being operated by the darker one. Samira lowered her gaze to the floor after seeing the black eye and gritted her teeth. Yes, dealing with the dark version was likely better for the moment. She had theorized on how she would react if Kaori knew about those details, but putting it into practice was something different entirely. With how Kaori reacted when she saw her Samira had assumed she knew nothing at all and was safe until such a time to tell her was present. If she decided to tell her, of course.

Samira stood up from the floor as Kaori made the iLac call and gave a slight nod in agreement. "I am afraid that I will have to agree with you. The documents did not go into great detail of the experiments being conducted here. They mentioned spirits, but I had assumed they were researching artifacts and keys to get a better understanding and maybe find a way to amplify their power. Creating them was outside my realm of thinking." The mind barrier she had put up earlier was removed as the thought dawned on her that there had been a created Amaterasu, which was something that should not have existed. Her key had been deactivated for centuries due to the power required and the special circumstances to even form a contract with her. It was impossible for the people of the facility to be able to recreate her to such an extent. The moment the barrier went down Samira could hear some of the spirits talking about sensing something not quite right. Even the weaker ones that normally showed no signs of fear at all were greatly worried, and one by one the summoner could feel them leave from the mind space and close their personal connections.

Dammit! It's turning into a ghost town in here even for us! Hey, where's Bastet?! Don't tell me she took off too?!

"Amaterasu, something is wrong here," Samira said vocally to the spirit that was clearly unseen, once again looking like some sort of crazy lady. She also did not hear Susano's words since she had taken extra effort to keep the link with him closed. "There was a clone of you here a moment ago. Kaori fought it, but-"

'Hmm, that would explain some of what I am feeling. There is a great amount of celestial energy present, although it is warped and has a sort of...false feeling to it.'

"Some?"

'There is something else, although I cannot place it. We were not able to sense it until you brought the barrier down. The warning Bastet sent you was from Ra. I would ask him more, although he, Serqet, Isis, and Geb left some time ago. I am now no longer sensing Bastet either. As for my "clone", that is disturbing. Creating spirits aside, there is no way one of the human world would have knowledge about me or my abilities.'

'Well they figured it out somehow. Now tell her to bring the mind barrier down! I can tell the link is one sided, and she's ignoring me!.'

Around that time the reinforcements the dark Kaori had called arrived at the meeting point, armed and ready for action. A small black portal opened up, revealing some sort of serpent that was instantly shot at by five different guns and sent packing. Samira's eyes went blank as she watched and nearly fell over in disbelief from the amount of overkill. Well, at least it proved they were reliable. "Let us be on our way," she told the dark Kaori, determined to press on and get what they came for. Everyone was led through the hallway with Samira in the lead due to having a map, although she got a sense that everyone kept quite close as she held the map to her face and walked without even looking. There was little cause for worry, and she felt safe, regardless of the fact she was with the dark Kaori rather than the real one. The group came to a set of double doors, and although the smaller offices appeared to be empty, Samira could hear the five men checking each one to make sure nothing was hiding. One then motioned for the summoner to stop as the group rushed to the door and readied themselves to bust it open. The men threw the doors open and aimed their weapons and began shooting at everything that moved, which at that point were several serpents of differing colors. Some managed to get elemental attacks off, but it did very little against the armor the men wore. Each destroyed reptile turned into puffs of magic particles that resembled that of the true spirits of the celestial realm rather than the kind the fake Amaterasu had turned into. They were not creations but rather weaker minions of the celestial world. Strange.

Now that the room had been clear it was easy to see that it was one of the research labs. There were open doors on the sides that connected to smaller empty rooms, likely used as some sort of containment system for some of the creations. There were also desks and magic infused computers. Samira couldn't make sense of anything on the screens, although in her defense it was because there was nothing but random flashes and a bunch of 1s and 0s. The next door ahead had more connecting rooms that would lead to the next area of the facility they had to pass through, although it was locked and needed some...thin rectangle...thing. Samira wasn't exactly up to date with keycards, and it was actually lying on the desk she had just left to examine the door. Just as she thought it was a good idea to summon Janus, or before Kaori or the men tried busting the thing down physically and making a lot of noise, five more of the strange fog spirits materialized. Naturally the armed men immediately took to action by firing their weapons at them, but the projectiles did very little against them, and the spirits began using the men as their new rag dolls as they were picked up and dropped or thrown repeatedly. Better than being torn to pieces. During their playtime, Samira took note of how one reacted to the explosion of a nearby computer. One of the men had hit it when they were firing the guns, causing it to explode and send a wave of brightly lit magic energy. The spirit creation screeched in agony as it took off in another direction in the room. "They do not seem to like light," Samira thought out loud just before evading the clutches of one of the fog spirits by swerving to the side.

The plan she would think was obvious and lacked any sort of complexity. Amaterasu was summoned and appeared in her usual flashy way. The half-formed spirit creatures screeched in high ear deafening pitches, causing even Samira to cover her ears. The light spirit then made good use of the new weapon she wielded, one she had been given by the true Kaori as a thank you for helping stop her. Her original weapon was a copy of the sword from the story of Susano and herself; a blade that he had recovered from the body of an eight headed beast and then gave to Amaterasu as repentance for deeds done in the past. It was a weapon the true Amaterasu may have treasured, but it had no real value to the spirit incarnation. The weapon forged by Kaori herself had taken its place and had become something that was hers rather than a copy of some tale. As her flashy appearance light faded, the spirit creatures formed lights of their own as lit up slash marks erupted from their bodies and turned them into dust. Amaterasu herself was already sheathing the blade in its special sheathe, having already been confident and sure that the creatures were dealt with. "Greetings, Dark Embodiment of the Leraci Clan Leader." She put on a smile and showed no shame in giving that version the ridiculously long nickname. There was no reason for her to feel any sort of hatred or dislike towards her. It was a part of Kaori and at that moment showed no signs of danger towards her summoner. Getting along was a lot more practical.

"Surely you could give her a much more simple name than that," Samira commented with a raise of her brow. Why Amaterasu gave out such weird descriptions for some people was beyond her. Just as she was shaking her head and about to go back to the door problem, a dark blue portal appeared beneath her feet and she fell through with her shouting in surprise at the sudden loss of a solid surface. The portal then disappeared, leaving Amaterasu, Dark Kaori, and the five men in the room without a Samira.

Rather than get pissed or show signs of concern for her now missing summoner, Amaterasu blinked her eyes in bewilderment and then grinned. "Oh, well that is a problem, now isn't it?" Her tone of voice was that of pure amusement. "If I had to take a guess then I would say I was not the only one copied. There must be one of Janus around here somewhere." As if her words required proof the entire room and the hallways connected to it began to morph and within seconds all people within were in an entirely different location of the facility. A cafeteria setting with chairs and tables knocked around everywhere and some crazy gibberish written along the walls in large letters. There were even some doodles that made entirely no sense. In the center of the room was a copy of Janus. The sight made Amaterasu sigh. She knew well he was generally a weak spirit when it came to fighting, but his portals were a bit of a problem, and she could tell the experiment version of him had altered powers. Since the five men had also been transported and were given orders to fire at anything not connected to Samira and Kaori, they did so, but each projectile was negated as it flew into several mini portals that opened up. A reverse portal opened, releasing the bullets at everyone nearby.

Amaterasu unsheathed her sword and charged quickly in a brightly lit trail. A portal appeared in front of her, which should have been impossible to do so quickly for the real Janus. She went through it before she could stop and reappeared through a different portal that had her smack against the wall from her momentum. Another portal appeared beneath her feet and transferred her to the ceiling where, if she wasn't her, she would have landed face first on the ground. During her fall she adjusted her position and did her favorite light vanishing act before reappearing again nearer the ground, although with such force that when she landed on one of the tables it broke apart. Another brightly lit charge as she went in for another attack. When the expected portal appeared, the trail of light split and went around it. Janus himself reacted just as quickly and a portal appeared below him. Amaterasu was able to enter the portal and follow just as it disappeared. Another portal appeared where the two exited and the scene became a rather humorous chase where one could commonly place certain theme music to match as portals and spirits appeared randomly all around the room. "This is actually an enjoyable experience," she commented with absolutely no shame as she finally ceased her chasing method. She would have to request this be a real game on game nights. Alas, games did have to come to an end though. There was still the issue of finding her summoner, after all. Her amused gaze hardened, now getting serious instead of playing around. "I am sorry, but copies are not necessary. Your corrupted existence insults the real Janus, and so I must destroy you. Do not take too much offense." More of her magic had activated, increasing her speed and glow further. One final charge and several attacks made by her blade in an instant was all that was needed to finish off the copy of the portal spirit. Assuming the dark Kaori was still around, Amaterasu would go to where she was while sheathing her weapon. "She may not be present, but I can sense her status. My summoner is not harmed. Using the connections of the others and my own senses we can locate her quickly. Come, before more copies appear to stall us." Whether or not the dark Kaori would follow, or if she was even present to begin with, Amaterasu would exit the cafeteria through a set of double doors. By her calculations, Samira had been ported down towards the basement of the facility. There, the summoner would be having her own battle with a Susano copy.

It seemed like for now the team would be Samira, Kaori's dark variant, and the five armored gunners. The story behind them was actually quite interesting since they were considered elite when standing among elite squads, but they didn't have the same backstory other high and mighty squads had. Most squads had gone through basic training together and climbed the ranks of their organization, fighting countless battles to earn glory. These five... nothing like that. Ghost was their leader and a damn good strategist, able to think of five different plans on the fly. His original name was Jason Crewe and he lived in Rose Garden. At the age of ten a dark mage made him an orphan and he ran away instead of staying at the shitty orphanage they put him in. He learned to steal his food, and had to fight for whatever he couldn't pilfer. His martial arts didn't come from some squinty eyed master with a weird offspring complex, it came from getting his ass kicked and then getting good enough to kick ass back. A few years of that and he'd come into contact with the twins Shadow and Tango. Those two were always screwing with people even back when they were Abraham and Joshua Finch. The two of them were inseparable, and while their plans weren't as great as Ghost's, they were damn good at executing their parts. Shadow was a sneaky little bastard who could dislocate his joints no problem and get into tight spaces, Tango was fast on his feet and good at keeping people distracted. They became orphans at the age of thirteen. Their mom moved to Crocus with her new boyfriend who constantly abused her and after a while, the twins watched him drown when the seat belt for his magic car 'somehow' wouldn't unlock when he 'randomly' drove straight into the lake behind his house at enough speed for him to fly up the conveniently placed ramp and fly into the deep end. Their mother killed herself from grief, leaving the twins to fend for themselves. They found Ghost after hitch hiking a ride with a caravan and helped him bust out of prison. They decided to stick around since Ghost's plans seemed to be more effective than their own, and the twins were good at getting things done. It was mutually beneficial, and they got along really well... that was a plus. Eagle was the black sheep in the group; born in a wealthy family who paid for her to go to magitech school and learn about computers, she was a genius when it came to tech. She took up archery as a stress reliever, making it so noticing a couple little shits running around and 'borrowing' her horses wasn't hard. She didn't like her parents, they had high expectations and never wanted to know what she wanted. After being convinced to help out in one of Ghost's miniature heists, she found that their way of life was what she wanted. She got a rush from hacking into company systems, disabling security, and always being at risk of being caught. She didn't need much to make Ghost accept her, and the twins didn't mind having a chick in the group even if she was two years older.

When the twins and Ghost were all fifteen, Eagle being seventeen; Ghost came up with a plan to rob a massive ship belonging to some rich brat from another country. She was normally gone, and the only thing they needed for the plan was someone who was able to get in with the crew. The three of them had become wanted in multiple cities, enough to be very high profile targets. This ship was decorated in lanterns, and had a mess of people constantly moving about it. It was The Incursion, one of Kaori's earlier ships from before she became allied with Lamia Scale. Bill was a dock worker with nothing to lose, he watched his wife and kids burn in a fire and was looking for something to fill that void. He was nineteen at the time, his only reason for having kids at the age of fifteen was bad life decisions but he was man enough to pledge his life to those kids and their mother. Something struck his when he saw a blonde girl with glasses reading a book about binary coding in the park. A couple weeks later he found himself agreeing to be their infiltrator, and Ghost could taste his fortune coming. The plan went well at first, but no one had considered that Kaori was well aware of it the whole time... The twins were the first to be caught, then Eagle, then Bill, and Ghost was allowed to stay free. When the time came for them to rendezvous, Kaori was waiting at the meeting location and Ghost knew he messed up. She gave him one chance to save his friends, by selling himself to Kaori and working for her. Just as Kaori planned, the twins willingly joined once Ghost was on board and Eagle didn't want to leave her friends, Bill didn't want to leave Eagle. In the years that followed, Kaori had trained them exclusively. She taught them how to fight better, how to work as a team, how to be a force to be reckoned with... Eagle had the hardest time with the training. Mile long runs in sixty pounds of metal and Kevlar were tough on someone used to doing her job from a chair, but eventually she toughened up. They all grew loyal to Kaori since she didn't act like a drill instructor, she got in the dirt with them and ran the courses and they knew if they were being deployed, Kaori was gonna be fighting alongside them... but nothing prepared them for this place...

Upon grouping with Kaori and getting their orders, a snake showed up that was large enough for the entire team to give it a firing squad death. "Well.. shit... that's a thing." Eagle said while lowing her rifle. "Yup, and it only gets worse from here." Kaori replied, and began following Samira. The five squad mates looked at each other and began reloading their guns while advancing. They all moved to be slightly behind Samira while she navigated and moved in front her when it was time to clear a door. Upon coming to a seemingly empty room, the squad split up and began checking each and every office, behind and under each desk, and every door. "I've got movement!" Ghost shouted and pointed his gun at the door he was looking at, the other four joined him. They looked at each other and Ghost nodded, the room filled with the sounds of gunfire and when they stopped Tango opened the door to let a small group of snakes fall out. Afterwards one of the clouds of particles from earlier had shown up and decided it was a great time to start throwing the squad around, though, that was better than what it did to the scientist last time. Afterwards one of Samira's other spirits decided to show up, and teleported everyone to a cafeteria which put them far off course and even separated them from their navigator. Amaterasu had dealt with Janus, and informed the group that she knew where to find Samira. "Alright, Eclipse Squad nap time's over!" Kaori shouted in a commanding voice, the five armored gunners began getting up. "Hey Cap... you ever think maybe you should call in actual wizards for this shit? I'm down for getting tossed like a rag doll as much as the next guy, but I hear it's unhealthy if I do it in excess." Tango said. "If I did that, then you'd all get lazy and we can't have that happen." Kaori replied casually. "Then how about upgrading our gats to fire magic instead of lead." Ghost recommended with a fairly cold tone. "You guys handle the stuff you can shoot, we'll take out everything else."

After walking for a while, Amaterasu and Kaori came to a fork in the road. Naturally, the spirit knew where to go, but the other direction lead back to the laboratories and their precious research. "Eclipse, you all go to the labs and download every bit of data. When your done torch it all and keep the copies. I wanna know what they did here, why they're doing it, and how they got this far. After it's torched evac immediately." Kaori stabbed her naginata into the floor. "Mammoth, go with them and keep those clouds from tearing them apart." she added, the weapon erupting into energy before reforming in the form of a massive man with fur on his back and a pair of Mammoth tusks growing from under it. He didn't reply only followed the firing squad to follow the orders he was given. He didn't like the dark version of Kaori, she was unpredictable and cruel compared to the original Kaori- but he was still technically Kaori so he had the obligation to follow orders that made sense. The squad began making their way back to the laboratories, following the signs that pointed to them while also turning anything that got in their way to the holiest thing on this side of the facility. Ghost lead the formation and was the first one around any corner, aiming his assault rifle and checking to make sure nothing was waiting before signaling the rest of his squad, his family, that it was safe to go. At one point they'd gotten to a room with a guy in a lab coat who'd begun downloading the data onto his own chip, likely with the same purpose as the squad, but he didn't live long enough to accomplish his goal. Bill was the one to kill him off and Eagle made sure that he was downloading the info and not scrubbing it. Much to her satisfaction, the information was being downloaded to an unencrypted universal serial bus, which made it so all they needed to do was hold down the fort till it was done. "Everyone clench up and get ready, we're gonna have a good ten minutes before this things done." she announced, and each man took a corner of the room while Mammoth stayed right next to Eagle. She was the one who knew how to work the tech here, so she was the most important member of the squad. At first it was quiet, but then a demon with four arms showed up. Each hand held a different weapon, and it seemed the demon could teleport as it had tried to get a sneak attack in on Eagle while she was monitoring the status of the download. Shadow fired a shot off and blasted the hand off that was raised to hit Eagle, and Mammoth slammed his fist into the demon's side while she was distracted by her missing limb.

While she was fast, her attacks did very little to his abnormally thick skin- which was half the reason he was sent. Each of Kaori's spirits had their own special quality... Charlotte was by far her strongest while also being her weakest. She could take any amount of damage, even a fully on barrage of Massive Ordinance Antiexistence Rounds from the Arc of Destiny and keep walking. She was small, nimble, and hit like a damn tank out of hell if it were on steroids. Her problem was that she only fought if given a very compelling reason, so she was naturally a bad bodyguard. Jediniah resurrected anything he killed, and was a damn good sword fighter. None of these enemies used a sword, and there was the possibility of enemies like Kali who had more weapons than him. Next up was Scarlet, who had twin shotguns and was pretty fearless but since she was physically weak it'd be bad if she was hit. Aquarius was Kaori's ace in the hole, and didn't ever listen to Kaori when her dark version was in control. Mammoth was strong, and had thick skin that couldn't cut or punctured as easily as the other spirits aside from Charlotte, and he hit just as hard as she did. While he was a mountain of muscle, he was also very intelligent and was able to strategize mid-battle. He was doing this while letting Kali get her hits in, waiting on a specific moment to arise while not concerning himself with the tiny wounds being inflicted. Then she went in for an attack with the trident and royally screwed herself... He grabbed the trident and pulled her in, taking hold of one of the demon's arms and slamming her to the floor with his godly strength. He stomped her body while it was on the ground and then slammed the skull with his fist, leaving a splatter of particles in its wake. "Dude, what in the actual fuck was that?" Bill asked out of surprise. "That would be Kali, the incarnation of a goddess and one of Samira's spirits." Mammoth replied in his offensively deep voice. "Shit, she summons gods and is smokin' hot? Cap's gonna have a hell of a time with her." Tango commented. They'd heard a lot about Samira, but not her summons so it was a natural surprise. "I wouldn't say that around the Captain, she's quite protective of Samira." "I've got the data, let's move to the next lab!" Eagle announced and everyone began forming back up to continue to the next room.

Meanwhile down with Amaterasu, after quite a bit of walking... "Sooooo~..." Kaori said, starting her small bit of conversation in light of nothing around to kill. "You're the light spirit Sammy used against me... you uh... you know about Kaori's feelings?" Upon Amaterasu saying she knew, or that every last one of her spirits did, whichever she mentioned, Kaori would reply "You guys are okay with me being around? Last time we met I was kind of kicking their asses..." her tone didn't imply she were bragging, but rather just stating facts- and going over the course of the battle she really was. After Amaterasu answered that question, Kaori would ask "Whadda you guys think of Kaori?"

An exit portal appeared on the ceiling of the basement and from it a certain summoner passed through it, screaming until she made impact with the floor. It was not a safe landing in the slightest, and the wind had been taken out of her while her body now suffered from all sorts of aches and pains all over. Samira groaned in pain as she began to move slowly and opened her eyes. The current room she was in was dark, lit by blue glowing lacrima crystals that were powering up some sort of large machines in the large area. A massively sized portal was also in the center of the room and seemed to be what the machines were connected to. Just by being around it Samira could tell that it must have been the source of the other feeling Amaterasu had mentioned before. It was a celestial portal for a spirit, but for one that was unlike her own spirits or that of Kaori's. The energy radiating from it was corrupted and very powerful. So much so that it feared even Samira, who specialized in handling spirits. She stared at it with widened eyes as she got up on her knees and began to sweat nervously just from being around the portal. All of her survival senses told her to get out of there, but her mind and body were completely frozen in place. "What...what is this?" She thought out loud, expecting no answer but getting one anyway soon after.

"That would be something that is considered to be another failure. Too bad. They were close."

Samira's heart jumped upon hearing the voice. It was the familiar voice of Susano, the very voice she certainly did not want to hear due to his earlier lecture. Although the tone as she heard it now was more dark and lacked any sort of friendliness the wind spirit may of had. The aura was different, and as the spirit materialized the originally still air turned into a chilly breeze. Her green eyes glared at the thing, knowing full well it was just another copy. Although, honestly the true one may have gotten the same look. "Close to what?" She inquired in a cold tone, momentarily forgetting about the red portal now that she had something else to focus on. The answer to that question came as a harsh wind that forced the summoner from her knees and flying backwards into a metal wall. A cry of pain was let out upon impact against the wall, and then again as she fell onto the floor once more.

"Nothing you need to worry about really. You aren't strong enough to know, and never will be. Just like the experiment in this place you are just another failure; a mistake that should not have happened." The Susano clone started to make his way over towards Samira in a slow manner, wanting to take his time with tiny jabs that even the original was known for.

"I am not-" Samira was interrupted as another strong gale sent her flying to the side wall connecting to the one she was already against. By that point she knew full well it was time to summon a spirit. Her hand went for her keys but found there was nothing there. Had she lost them during her original fall? The jingling sounds of small clashing metal objects was heard as she watched the fake Susano materialize her keychain in his hands and wave it around.

"Don't interrupt. It's rude. As for these, you won't really be needing them anymore. You see, some moron in this place thought it would be a good idea to clone spirits in order to reach their goals. You were going way too slowly with unlocking the real ones, and they just weren't impressed. A failure even for your enemies." The false Susano crossed his arms over his chest and sighed before creating a gust of wind that sent Samira towards the ceiling and held her there. "That isn't even counting the fact my original even thinks the same way I do. Just one mistake right after another that lowers his opinion of you and further proves something went wrong with the paperwork. Its no wonder he takes pleasure in assaulting you with words the way he does." He was right under Samira, and as the wind that held her up vanished, she fell straight down where he grabbed hold of her and physically threw her against the wall. "A shame he can't really do this type of abuse. It's just a little bit fun, and you make it so damn easy." The fake Susano chuckled and had a mind to do a little more playing around before he was sent flying himself across the room, dropping the keys in the process. The wind that had been generated was not cold like the fake, but warm and was filled with the power of one pissed off wind spirit. Samira may have made it so she couldn't hear anything he told her, however, the real Susano had been able to hear and see everything she could. A one way link was completely annoying, but it was ten times better than nothing at all.

"There is a major difference between you and I," the real Susano stated as he fully materialized, using his own power to do so since Samira lacked her keys to do a proper summoning. He took hold of his weapon firmly as the room was filled with a small but strong wind storm that was grabbing hold of everything and sucking everything into it like a tornado, yet at the same time another force was keeping everything away from himself and his summoner. The false Susano got on his feet despite the wind force and begun to generate his own. The room shook and even parts of the metal ceiling and walls started to come off from their surfaces. Both forces of wind suddenly stopped, reaching an equilibrium and being an example of the phrase the calm before the storm. "I say what I do because in some weird way, I actually care. I just don't believe in pretty lies." The fake could only laugh in reply before the moment of silence returned. Both swordsmen then used forces of wind behind them to increase their speed and propel themselves forward in a quick charge. Their blades met and each stood there while trying to overpower the other. The fake one was winning as the real Susano felt himself being pushed back. The experiment likely made the clone stronger. A pair of chakrams then struck the fake, distracting him and giving the real one an opening. He took it and used his strength to push the fake version back and off balance before creating another wind gust that sent the fake into the large red portal. The fake did not return.

Susano left the area of the red portal that was even making him feel afraid as he stared at it and went towards where Samira was, grabbing the keychain that was on the floor on the way. As he got there he knelt down and could tell she was not exactly in the best shape after being thrown against a few walls. If it were not for the small defense shield placed on her that grew stronger with each spirit that formed a contract with her, she likely would have been much worse and had a few things broken. Samira didn't even say anything to him and just took the keys from him. One key was shakily pulled off and soon a summoning was performed. "Open, gate of the Avatar, Goddess of Beauty! Aphrodite!" She didn't have any healing spirits aside from one, which wasn't particularly strong but her power would have to do for the moment.

Within moments a scantily clad blonde with flowers in her hair appeared. White doves circled around her and for some reason she had a rather obnoxious pretty glow around her. It soon faded as the spirit realized she was in a place that could be categorized as a total dump. "Ew..." She looked to the ground and stood on her tip toes, as if it would do anything to protect her feet from the disgusting metal floor. "You couldn't have summoned me in a pretty flower field? Or by a sparkling river with a crowd so I could flaunt my beauty around as the water reflected my features?"

"Can it, little miss priss! Now do some healing magic and get out of here before I throw you into that portal over there. I am sure you could feel it if you weren't so concerned with the floor."

"Tsk tsk tsk, that is a rude way to request something of a lady." Her index finger was raised and she waved the hand it was attached to as she said those words.

"I am not requesting. Heal me," Samira told the spirit, asserting her authority now that any good mood she had previously had been shattered. Aphrodite took quite an offense to the demand, but she did anyway with a wave of her hand and dismissed herself from that awful environment. How ugly. The summoner stood and the moment Susano went to help her she forced herself away and glared. Clearly his name was still on the unforgiven side. "Still going to be mad at me, huh? Fine! I was only doing you a favor by telling you the truth. I'm out of here." In a gust of wind and flashy particles, Susano was gone. Samira huffed and began to look for some sort of exit. As she walked over to what looked like some large circular metal door, an orange glowing hand appeared on her shoulder and she could feel heat radiating from it. The summoner shouted in surprise and the only thing that stopped her heart from popping out of her chest was the voice that spoke the instant she shouted.

"You allow surprise to overcome you all too often. I will let it slide this time in light of the situation."

The hand was removed and Samira turned to see the falcon headed spirit known as Ra crossing his arms over his chest and staring at her with a stern expression. "What are you doing here? You never even appear when I call you." Normally Samira would have been trusting of her spirits, but her tone had suspicion within it. Ra continued to stare silently and did not even blink during it. Finally he brought his arms down and began walking over to the scattered papers lying around that Samira had dropped on her way in. He picked one up, studied it, and then handed it over to his summoner. "Janus should be able to open a portal directly to the office marked here. There's enough details between what is written here and from what I have just relayed to him to ensure you do not end up inside a wall. You have ten minutes before I destroy this place. Gather your allies and leave as quickly as possible. The countdown begins the moment you leave this room."

Back to Amaterasu and Kaori:

The light spirit walked quietly with the dark version of Kaori. The part of the building they were currently in seemed to be void of any enemies and had turned an otherwise chaotic mess into a pleasant stroll. The question presented by the dark Kaori was heard and Amaterasu acknowledged the first part with a nod, but kept her eyes forward rather than turn to face the ninja. "All of us are aware of Kaori's feelings towards our summoner. We know what Samira knows. Our version of a mind link is quite thorough in that regard, and even if we are blocked we can still go through her memories at a later time to gather information." With the next question asked of her, Amaterasu did not appear to be offended at all. It was true that the other spirits had quite a bit of difficulty facing Kaori and her clones back then. "We have little choice in the matter. You are a part of Kaori. There are only concerns on how influential you will be in the future. None of us desire the past repeating itself. I am sure you understand why." With the third question Amaterasu halted her steps and looked at the dark Kaori. "I cannot speak for everyone, but the general consensus is that the true Kaori is someone to be liked. Some respect her power, some admire her leadership, others are fond of her hidden adorable side, and the rest are thankful that Kaori has protected and cared for Samira during times we could not. We will show no ill feelings towards her." Amaterasu continued walking through the halls once more. "Should you not be asking what Samira thinks of her?" A mischievous smile appeared on the spirit's face as she said those words, knowing full well that the mind link could be taken advantage of with such a question, and how tempting it could be to demand an answer.

The temperature started to drop suddenly and ice began to form along the walls, floor, and ceiling. Up ahead several light blue glowing eyes could be seen as well as howling to be heard. Amaterasu hardened her gaze and drew her sword, already concluding which spirit copy was next. Although, even her eyes nearly popped out of her sockets at the sight that came next. She had expected the winter spirit to come crashing down with her spear, but instead the clone Skadi held a giant chunk of ice that she then through with such strength and force that Ama slammed the door to a side office open to avoid the attack altogether. Naturally she would have grabbed the arm of the dark Kaori and took her inside as well, but if for some reason that became impossible the light spirit would have left her there. The clone Skadi seemed to focus entirely on Kaori, ignoring Amaterasu altogether. The spirit sweatdropped, knowing full well what getting hit with rocks and ice meant for the original Skadi. Amaterasu had made attempts to stop the winter spirit's assault, but she soon found herself blocked by the mist wolves that had been seen before. She kicked at one that had gotten too close, and slashed her blade at another, but as soon as one had been dealt with another took its place. It didn't help that due to the new icy floor she was slipping and sliding everywhere quite easily whenever she moved. "I suggest...killing the...copy...I am otherwise...preoccupied," Amaterasu said loudly over the fighting so the dark Kaori could hear. Her sentence had a few pauses in it and took some time to complete as she dealt with the wolves.

If the battle was still going on, a large fireball that could be categorized as a mini sun would strike the Skadi clone, obliterating her into black particles. There would stand Ra, looking completely unamused, the opposite of Amaterasu's normal persona. If the battle was over, he'd still be there regardless with the same look. "Susano is helping Samira and should be finished soon. If there are any other allies in this place I suggest you advise them to get out within the next quarter hour unless you wish them to die. I am destroying this place."

Amaterasu's features turned into one of confusion before switching over to suspicion. "Why did you and the other desert spirits disappear before we even reached this place? There was no possible way you could have sensed the spirits here beforehand with the mind barrier up, and even then you are not the type to run. You know what is going on here, don't you?"

Ra ignored the question and merely pointed in a direction down the hallway they had originally been traveling through. "Take the elevator at the end to the top floor. The office Samira was looking for is there. She will be there shortly." Before Ama could say anything more, the sun spirit disappeared in swirling flames, where he would later end up in the basement with Samira shortly after her battle.

"Ra!" Too late. He was already gone and she was not about to track down where he went. "Better contact that small team of yours and request that they exit," she advised as she turned in the direction of the dark Kaori. "He seems to have come up with the same idea you presented earlier, and he is not lying about the time limit he gave us. He is the type that will act regardless if his allies are in the firing zone or not. This includes Samira, although I doubt he will allow her to die. Still, I would rather not test that theory."

Amaterasu would head for the elevator regardless if Kaori had joined her or not. Regardless if anything happened along the way, the spirit and ninja would soon be in front of an office that had the name Nassar written on it. A portal appeared next to the door where a certain green haired summoner stepped through. "Oh, that is quite convenient," she commented with a disbelief blink of her eyes at the fact her spirit and Kaori, if she was also still there, were already there.

Kaori had nodded for all the answers, but ultimately didn't ask how Samira felt about Kaori. Both her and the original Kaori felt the lack of emotion earlier during the kiss, and needed no further information to know where Samira stood. Kaori was nothing more than a friend, and that's if she was lucky enough to be that. "Samira has no romantic feelings for Kaori, her heart- judging by previous events- seems to lay with Ikuchi." she said in a fairly certain tone. Kaori knew about her servant and Samira's little adventure, and the knowledge of which was by far the most painful thing she'd been through. The clone of Amaterasu reminding Kaori of this was the reason she had to be put to sleep, otherwise she would have destabilized and likely given Samira a free pass to join Mr. Fluffles.

Some time of walking had lead to the area getting cold out of nowhere. Amaterasu had jumped aside to dodge an incoming rock and Kaori performed a backwards cartwheel with time seeming to slow as the rock passed mere inches from her nose before speeding up again. Skadi was her next opponent, someone that had already been taken down by the dark Kaori. She didn't need any help for this opponent and vanished, appearing next to Skadi while cutting her leg and vanishing again to leave behind a clone. Skadi bashed the clone with a rock and needless to say... Clone not survive skull bashing, Skadi not survive clone exploding. A man with a bird's head appeared and told Kaori and Amaterasu where they needed to go, as well as that he was leveling the facility in fifteen minutes. Kaori could sense no deception in his heart, and figured Amaterasu didn't need to be told that since she was going with the plan. "Thanks tweety, I'll relay the message." Kaori pulled her iLac out and called Ghost, letting him know they had fifteen minutes to de-ass the area. He let Kaori know they were at the last terminal and needed ten minutes to finish grabbing the info, it would result in a very close escape but Kaori know they'd manage.

Kaori and Amaterasu had arrived at the same time Samira stepped through a portal and commented on how them meeting up at the same time was convenient. Kaori's eyes turned towards the door to the office where she heard a distinctive banging, and then the doors exploded open and a scientist came running out with a pair of those clouds going after him. Kaori pulled a bomb out of her satchel and set it to emit light before throwing it at the clouds. The force of the explosion tore them apart, and the light made sure they stayed torn apart. The scientist was sent flying and Kaori nonchalantly turned to let him go past her instead of knocking into her, his landing zone being the wall opposite the door. The man got up and saw Samira and immediately tried to run, but Kaori's telekinesis kept him off the ground and made him hover closer to her. "To execute, or not to execute... that is the question. Whether it is nobler to slay those who commit atrocities, or permit them life with a grander purpose... Pray tell, why should you live?" Kaori said with a crooked smile. "M-my name Zhong Lei, D-Doctor Zhong Lei. I am head of celestial biomechanical research here!" he shouted, knowing damn well who Kaori was and her definition of mercy from examining Samira. "So what? I asked for a reason to keep you alive, not who or what your were."

Zhong: "I-I study dead body of fail experiments, find where it went wrong!"Kaori: "(eyes narrow) ... Still waiting."Zhong: "I can translate logs you copy!"Kaori: "Getting warmer, but keep going."Zhong: "Spirits composition, where material come from, how clones were made- I know all."Kaori: "What's stopping you for bullshitting us?"Zhong: "Experiments inhuman, but needed to feed family. Promise safety and I give everything!"Kaori: "You want me to keep Jasmine and your son safe, in exchange for information?"Zhong: (nods rapidly)Kaori: "You're gonna work your ass off every day translating that data?"Zhong: (nods rapidly) "Yes, I promise!"Kaori: "Fine, but you're the only one. If you slack off, I'm launching your ass out the air vents."

Kaori dropped the scientist and continued in the office to copy the last bits of data from the terminal. She looked at her iLac and figured they had five minutes left. "Come on... come on..." she said nervously, watching the time tick down to three minutes and the progress being seventy five percent. Once Samira had grabbed what she needed and the file was downloaded, they'd have exactly one minute to be gone. The sound of jets screaming was heard before gunfire tore the roof of the office open, exposing the underside of the White Mermaid. "Things are getting a bit bright out here, figured you might want a ride." the old voice of Salty came over Kaori's iLac speaker. "Snoop Genie, get us out of here." Kaori said and the sound of snapping was heard just before they appeared in the ship. While the mermaid was heading out and Ra was leveling the place, Kaori had thought of a horrible thing to do... Just before Amaterasu was dismissed, Kaori shouted "Wait!" and ran over to the spirit. She placed her arms around her waist and gave a warm embrace followed by a light kiss on the cheek. "By Ammy." she said before disconnecting, looking back to Samira with a light smile- the one black eye still showing.

Samira watched the scene of the random scientist, spirit clouds, and Kaori interact. Surprisingly the scientist was not killed automatically just for existing and being in the way. Not surprisingly it was because the dark Kaori had an agenda and a use for the man. Figures. Samira sighed but couldn't really hold much negative judgement over it. If Samira had been the way she was before she would have let the man go, knowing full well another one of those things would have destroyed him or he would have been killed from the destruction that was soon to come to the facility. As long as she didn't do the killing herself it did not make any black marks on her soul. With Amaterasu as an active contract, she no longer could have that sort of thinking unless it was necessary. This wasn't exactly one of those, and it was with luck that the one they ran into was useful, or they both would of had to stop the dark Kaori from killing the man. Amaterasu nodded her approval at Kaori sparring him and went into the office with Samira following.

As Kaori was downloading data from a terminal in the office, Samira went over to something that was way more familiar than some high tech gadgets from another country or planet. In the back of the room were two large bookshelves that contained many journals, documents, folders, etc etc. In the middle of them along the wall was a safe that had a magic lock. The documents she had been given previously had informed her that only family members were able to open the safe due to the lock working off of some bloodline magic. Since she was the only family member she was aware of that would be interested in its contents, it should of had everything that was within it since the last time her grandfather had sealed it. The lock automatically started to move on its own just from her touch and the door popped open. Her verdant eyes blinked as confusion spread across her face. Inside was another old journal with a brown leather covering. Upon its surface the name Souniro Amkhu Khalid Tarik Nassar was written in black letters, the writing style being very neat and easily read. Clearly it was another of her grandfather's journals. The reason for having five different names? Some odd tradition of children always having their father's, grandfather's, great grandfather's, etc etc name in a long list of names rather than having a real surname. Fiore made the family pick one a long time ago, but that did not stop the generations from having several middle names. Thankfully the long naming tradition ended with his own children, resulting in Samira's being completely normal. Even though officially in the offices he was called by Nassar, everywhere else he went he would introduce himself as Professor Souniro. It was just easier that way.

Samira took the journal and as she did so a sheet of paper that had been underneath dropped and swayed its way to the floor. She knelt down and picked it up to read the writing upon it.

"There was more here, but I took it.I deserve it more than a spoiled and selfish person like you.You get to have the journal since it is worthless to me.I will be seeing you soon.P.S. Tell Anhur when you find him that Anubis says hello.P.S.S. Menhet also sends him her love."

The summoner's facial expression became more and more blank as the letter became rather long and filled with even more P.S. message nonsense that was quite redundant. She flipped the page over to see it still continuing and noticed at the bottom there was no name to indicate who it was from. Just how old was the letter? Was it even for her? It mentioned Anhur, but there should have been no one else able to open the safe. Her cousins and such had no interest in his work nor did they have anything remotely similar to names of mythological gods and goddesses. More questions. "I have what I came here for. Or, rather what is left of it," Samira said calmly, having forgotten about the strict time limit and barely even noticing there was only one minute left. Gunfire then exposed the roof and the group was teleported aboard the ship that hovered over them.

The ship started to move away from the building that had practically been nuked from the basement floor and had begun to be assaulted from above by several mini suns falling from the sky. Not even the fog spirits were going to survive, especially when more explosions started to occur from the damaged technology within the building and the unleashed magic energy from other devices. Needless to say, Kaboom. "I am unsure if there were any other survivors or not," Amaterasu said with a bit of disappointment. Ra did not give her anytime to actually look for any before destroying the facility. "Although I would be surprised if there were any others that kept their sanity." The light spirit turned to Samira with a small smile that turned into a frown as she spoke her next words. "Take care, Samira. I must head back and...take care of some things." Just as she was going to turn into nothing more than magic particles, she heard a voice request that she wait. Her brown gaze turned over towards the dark Kaori, who was running over. "What is-oh my..." Amaterasu found herself in a warm hug, by the dark Kaori no less. Then there was a kiss left on her cheek before the ninja disconnected.

Samira could only blink her eyes at first, adding another tally mentally to the amount of times she had found herself in bewilderment and surprise that day. Then the pupils of her eyes disappeared as the orbs turned white and her mouth dropped in the typical comical surprised face. What the actual hell?! Somehow Amaterasu could sense Susano having the exact same expression. She smiled in amusement from the reactions and stepped and leaned forward to give a small peck on the ninja's cheek in return before disappearing. Samira's face now added in a shadow overcast. Did some really weird bonding happen while she was in the basement? She was rendered speechless, although she did try to say something but any words said came out as weird stuttering noises. Finally she just gave up and rubbed her eyes. "She certainly knows how to make friends..." Samira thought out loud, recalling how Amaterasu had befriended Ikuchi so easily that led to head petting, and now the dark Kaori that led to cheek kissing. Was she really a pure and innocent spirit?

Samira ceased the eye rubbing now that the weird moment had passed. She wasn't even sure how she was supposed to feel about that scene. Best to just leave it at awkward. "I suppose I should thank you," the summoner said nonchalantly as she focused on the dark Kaori. The dark version may have been disliked, but she did stick around and prevent the real Kaori from going into another state of instability by putting her to sleep. Samira was actually dreading what would happen when the true Kaori was active again. They couldn't really talk about certain details, or rather Samira felt uncomfortable doing so, and it was certain Kaori did not want to hear any explanations. "So, thank you. I mean it." She wasn't about to give the dark Kaori any hugs or anything. Forgetting enemies that easily was something only Amaterasu could do, not herself.

The journal that she had obtained from the office was held tightly to her chest. Now she just needed time to go through it and see if the location of Anhur really was within it.

In The Celestial Realm:

Amaterasu appeared back in the realm of spirits, particularly a portion where Samira's set of keys resided. She had been walking along normally, oblivious to the fact that everything was pretty much broken and destroyed and there were several tornadoes off in the distance. Then an unrolled scroll smacked her in the face, causing her to stop and remove it. Once her sight was no longer obstructed, her eyes widened and she cringed at seeing everything...well everywhere. "What happened here?" There was only one spirit she knew of that could do such damage using wind and likely be ticked off enough to do it at that point in time. Amaterasu sighed as she came to the conclusion that it was Susano. "Brother...I am not amused."

"Heeeyyy! Help me out!"

Amaterasu blinked as she heard the voice of Agni, although it was slightly distorted and muffled due to him being underneath large chunks of building. Eventually he was freed and upon Ama asking what had happened the fire spirit just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. We were all camping out here to avoid feeling that presence, and then he showed up just before you did screaming and ranting about Team Kaori moving in on the females of Team Samira. I think he went to put in a restraining order on all of our contracts. Granted, he has to kind of make sure he doesn't send it to the other side of the celestial realm first. What did you do?"

"I kissed Kaori on the cheek after she did it to me," Ama said with absolutely no shame, and was quite confused when she suddenly felt more disturbances in the form of the other connected spirits falling flat on their faces as if Susano's reaction was a rather obvious one and should have been predicted. "What? Would 'making out' with her be more appropriate? Is that how you respond properly to a kiss on the cheek?"

"Ama...dear sweet naive, Ama. As much as I would love to see you try, don't. At least not right now. Here, take this to amuse yourself with. It's educational!" Agni found a book that had been on the ground and misplaced due to the destruction of the building. He gave it to the light spirit, who gazed at it quizzically. "What is this?"

"They call it fanfiction. Enjoy, and don't say I never did anything for you."